I have a number of friends who wouldn't walk across the street to get a free ticket to watch a National Basketball Association game.

There is some evidence that at least a portion of the sports fans in this country feel the same way. Television ratings for the NBA are down and the playoffs aren't attracting as much attention as the NBA would like.

In many respects, I think those who are turned off by the NBA are missing the most exciting, dramatic and athletic sport in the world. I can make a great case for NBA players being the best athletes in the world.

But there is something about this game that turns off a number of people who might otherwise be fans.

Like every complex problem, there are no simple answers. People have a lot of ideas about what the problem is. High salaries, thuggish mentality, players who don't play hard, too many teams in the playoffs. But there is no single answer.

One of the issues, however, drew some scrutiny last week during the aftermath of the series between the Denver Nuggets and the Dallas Mavericks. For the record, Denver won the series, 4-1. The third game, played in Dallas, was one of the most exciting games I've ever seen.

But it was that game that placed the focus on a big part of the problems in the NBA.

A couple of days after the series ended George Karl was on a national radio show and took some serious shots at the atmosphere in Dallas.

"I felt it crossed the line," Karl said of the attitude during the third game of the series. "There was a racist mentality to it. There was a fighting mentality to it. It was to the point where blows, I think, could have happened."

Dangerous words from Karl, a guy I know fairly well. But it's not the kind of thing he'd make up.

The third game was marked by a controversial non-call by the referees followed by a buzzer beater by Carmelo Anthony.

In the hubbub following the game, the crazed owner of the Mavericks, Mark Cuban, was marching around the floor, chin sticking out, pushing television cameras, and looking like a guy who was anxious to mix it up with someone.

Cuban is a wimp. A rich wimp, but a wimp. He reminds me of the guy we used to beat up at school. The twerp who thought he was smarter than everybody else and didn't mind saying so.

Here's one of the major problems with Cuban.

The crowd in the arena sees him acting like a meth-infested freak and they think it's all right to act like that, too. His behavior as a boor gives permission to the fans of his team to act like boors as well. He is living proof that all the money in the world can't buy you civilized behavior.

The NBA is a game of passion. That's a big part of its attraction. But Cuban thinks because he has a billion dollars he has purchased the right to act like a drunken Napoleon without the white horse.

The NBA keeps fining Cuban whenever he criticizes the referees. But he doesn't care about the fines. The guy has a screw loose and doesn't seem to understand anything about the concept of dignity or class.

He spends endlessly to buy a team. His players love the guy. But at some point the league needs to face up to the fact that Cuban is not good for the game.

I don't think he's racist. But his behavior gives fans the excuse to act, as Karl put it, "with a fighting mentality." That mentality comes from the very top of the Dallas organization.

Ownership of an NBA team is a very exclusive club. But the league needs to have some standards, beside money, for membership in this club.